I love to spend time in my kitchen cooking for people that I love. It's the best way I know to let people know how I feel about them. My reward comes when my daughter, Sarah, whispers in my ear "Mom, you're amazing!" This changes daily. If I'm busy, my crock-pot is my best friend. I really enjoy breads and sweets, but I also love combining savory flavors to get a truely unique taste that people recognize as my own, as in sauces and glazes. I also like to try to make anything that my son, Kevin, will actually eat. He's not the typical boy (now man) in that he thinks eating is a waste of time! I love to mix things up so there are not a lot of traditions that I follow, except at christmas time when there are some "must-haves" on the cookie list. Oh, and if my daughter, Sarah, is coming for a holiday dinner there should be some of that wierd strawberry pretzel salad! I'm pretty good at making any cheesecake recipe. My first was the most memorable; I tried to make pie crust (my dad's speciality) when I was about 12 years old. It was a disaster and I was very embarrassed and felt bad for wasting the ingredients. I tried to bury it in the back yard, but that night as the family was sitting around the dinner table someone said "what's Daisy (our dog) dug up now?" Needless to say, she had unearthed my attempt at pie crust and I was discovered. Everyone got a good laugh, except me!